Page 19 of The Spider Queen
Jonah was going all out to impress my cousin. Then again, he was already staring at her with worshipful eyes so she clearly had donesomethingto him. I didn’t want to know.
“You guys wanna come?” Jonah asked.
Hunter looked at me and raised his eyebrows. “Your call. I’m down for whatever.”
“Thanks for the offer,” I said with a shake of my head, “but I’ve got stuff to take care of.”
“Not school work,” Anita stated. “Please no school work.”
“I’ll make sure she doesn’t work too hard,” Hunter promised.
Anita hugged me goodbye and whispered in my ear, “You and me, tonight. Catch up.”
With a final wave, Jonah and Anita were out the door. As soon as they left, I went back into my room to grab the spider in the cube. I set it on the coffee table and pulled out my phone, wanting to get a few good pictures.
Hunter sat down on the couch, letting me do my thing. He kept shooting strange glances at the spider.
“Is this freaking you out?” I asked.
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. It’s just…”
“What?” I asked.
“Wasn’t it more translucent last night?”
My head whipped up to stare at him. “I had the same thought, but just assumed I needed coffee to clear my head.”
“The spider looks, I don’t know. More solid? Is that right?” A flash of pain crossed his face.
I immediately went to his side. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he breathed, speaking through a gritted jaw. “Headache.”
“I have some Advil—”
“I’ll be okay.” He rubbed the space between his eyebrows.
“You sure?”
He nodded. “Do your thing, Poppy. Will it bother you if I watch some TV?”
“No, go ahead.”
He picked up the remote, and the screen flashed on.
An hour later, I had sent the pictures to seven different researchers at multiple arachnological institutes across the world. Hopefully, I’d get a response from at least one of them and soon.
“I better take her back into my room,” I said, picking up the cube. “Don’t want Anita coming home and freaking out.”
“Her?” Hunter asked in amusement. “You sure it’s a female?”
“No.”
I took the cube back to my room and a lightning bolt of awareness flashed through my mind.
